BLSA rejects Capitec offer on Viceroy report

Business
Leadership South Africa, a lobby group made up of some of the country’s
largest companies, said it turned down an offer from
Capitec Bank Holdings to pay for a report on short seller Viceroy
Research, which had earlier in the year targeted the lender.

Following conversations with Capitec Chief Executive Officer
Gerrie Fourie, who offered to pay for the research, BLSA decided it
wanted to own the report and declined,
Bonang Mohale, CEO of of the business group, said by phone on Friday.

It’s “absolutely true” that there were emails about the matter between
the two CEOs, as reported by Johannesburg-based Business Day, but BLSA
commissioned and paid for the report, he said.

Research company Intellidex produced the 49-page document
for BLSA in July. On its unverified Twitter account, Viceroy called it a
“smear piece” and refuted some of its findings. Viceroy first came to
the fore in the country in December when it released a critical report
on
Steinhoff International Holdings the day after the retailer uncovered
accounting irregularities. At the end of January, it published a piece
about Capitec [JSE:CPI] that sent the bank’s stock tumbling and prompted the
central bank to step in and defend the lender.

Capitec, South Africa’s fastest-growing bank and a BLSA member,
didn’t contribute to Intellidex’s fees, spokesperson Charl Nel said on
Friday. BLSA contracted and paid Intellidex, according to the research
company’s chairperson, Stuart Theobald.